1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a printer and a structure of a data processing apparatus having a printing unit, particularly relates to a structure of a horizontal type printer for printing on a printing medium while feeding the printing medium horizontally and a structure of a data processing apparatus having a horizontal type printing unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Meeting the demands of users for personal use printers of low priced printers, there have been provided printers each structure of which is stressed on making the printer small in size, low in price and high in printing quality. However, these printers are placed under various restricting conditions, e.g. in a size, thickness or kind of a printing medium. If these printers are used for a business purpose, they are limited in their use. To relax these restricting conditions, there has been developed a horizontal type printer which can move a printing medium horizontally and print on the printing medium by a print head attached to the printer above a surface of the traveling printing medium. Since the printing medium is fed horizontally in this kind of printer, the printing medium is less curled or skewed. Accordingly, this printer has an effect that it can print on a small printing medium such as a thick paper or a check. However, there are problems to be solved in this horizontal type printer so that it can be more widely used by users as a printer adapted for a business use while meeting the demand of a personal use. In the prior art horizontal printer, a print head portion is always positioned above the printer body. Accordingly, there was a problem in that the printer is poorly accommodated since the upper portion of the printer projects even in a non-printing operation state. In an ink jet type print head, there is an additional problem to be solved. A print head of the prior art ink jet type horizontal printer is always mounted on the printer in a downward direction. Accordingly, if the printer is left unused for a long period of time, there was a problem in that ink drops from the print head to thereby stain the printing medium or a printing paper traveling path.
The problem of the poor accommodation of the printer because of the projection of the upper portion of the printer even in the non-printing operation state was also kept unsolved in a data processing apparatus having a prior art horizontal printing unit.
If the data processing apparatus is left unused for a long period of time, the problem that ink drops from the print head to thereby stain the printing medium or printing paper traveling path was also kept unsolved in the data processing apparatus having the prior art horizontal printing unit.